Kenya: Rampant plant smuggling threatening species - report

The poaching of succulent plants in Kenya is "quite rampant", a Kenyan botanist is quoted in the UK's Daily Telegraph as saying.

"When you look through the international catalogues you will find a lot of Kenyan plants. They are disguised as vegetables and taken out of the country. If a succulent has any medical qualities they're even more at risk," Dr Emily Wabuyele told the newspaper.

The Daily Telegraph reports that a boom in the sale of houseplants in Europe and Asia has led to plants, some of them rare, being illegally exported from both Kenya and South Africa.

"There is a collecting mania. People want these wild plants which can grow for up to a hundred years. They are being taken out by local people, some of whom have lost jobs during lockdown," South African expert Cornelia Klak is quoted as saying.

"They are cleaning out the populations, including all the very, very old plants. This is the tragedy; they are not just picking off the seeds."

The newspaper says that if the problem gets worse it could lead to a devastating loss of bio-diversity in South Africa.

This article was originally published by BBC News. [Photo: Getty Images]